Title: Collaboration Chapter 6
Author: Nimacu
Summery: Buffy/Harry Potter/Smallville Crossover. Our heroes all receive interesting letters.
Timeframe: Buffy Post season two, age 17, Harry Post book seven age 18, Clark mid-season two age 17? Yes I may be molding it to my own device but hey that's why it's fan fiction and not the Jetsons meet the Flintstones
Disclaimer: Not mine, not of it. Even the plot leans a little towards LXG. So again I say I don't own Buffy, Harry, Clark and any other characters. Don't own the song either; it's all Crow's
Thank You:
Slimpun: I'll try and since I already have the next chapter almost completely written I'll post it soon
Catlimere: Once again you rock! Loved your review, hope you like this chapter.
Orionthehunter: Thank you
Anne: I thought so too
Ecstasy of Grief: Patience my dear, all will be revealed in time
Ladyofthedragons1: Thank you
Erro: you are an encourager and you build my confidence. May you never stop reviewing.
Eth: patience is a virtue, and I'm glad you find it interesting
Cutiepie: Hope everything's clearer now.
Buffy stared skeptically at the man who'd failed to introduce himself thus far, but yet had tried to play the "It's your destiny" card with them all.
"I'm actually almost impressed, but yet I'm wondering why does this impress me? Because if you think you're the first guy to show up in my life with a prophecy and a destiny all arranged for me without my permission your wrong, heck you're not even the second guy to pull that crap" Buffy stopped hands on hips, waiting for the older man to say something
"Miss Summers, as much as I'd like to tell you that this is all a joke and that the fate of the world doesn't rest in the hands of yourself and these two gentleman, I can't. Sometimes you have to do things that aren't in your plans. I apologize but I can't change what has to be, what's meant to be."
"Meant to be? How do you know you even have the right girl? I'm not the last in the line of slayers. There was one after me and when she died I'm sure another was called. Why can't she be the one that the prophecy's about?
"Because Miss Summer's; she's not a real slayer."
Clark and Harry had been silent listening to Buffy try to talk her way out of the prophecy, but at the second mention of "Slayers" Clark spoke. "What's a slayer?"
Buffy looked at the them; answering quickly "One girl in all the world…etcetera." Turning back to the other man she fired another sentence at him "What do you mean she's not a real slayer?"
"Miss Summers, I would love to spend time explaining it all to you, but I really don't have the time. However I did anticipate this question and had one of my assistants type up a report for you to look over. Perhaps you can just trust me for now so we can continue this meeting." They watched the man open a briefcase that they hadn't noticed before on the table next to him and hand Buffy a folder out of it. "Here you go Miss Summers, why don't you look over that tonight I'm sure you'll find everything in order" The man reached in and pulled out three more folders handing one to each of them. "In here you'll find a little bit more about our company. Not too much, just the basics. Also taped inside of each of them is a key for our penthouse upstairs. If you'd like to take tonight and think this over you can do it there and we can meet again in the morning. It'll also give you three the chance to chat and get to know each other. Deciding to join H.I. is not a light commitment and I understand that. But I'll need to know by tomorrow. And with that said I need to be going. I'll see you tomorrow" He finished talking as he turned to leave the three dumbfounded teens. He had a way of talking about him that didn't leave much up for discussion. But someone did gather their wits as he opened the door.
"What's you name?" Harry asked him
"Well Harry, you can call me Mr. Wayne." And with that he left.
~~~~~~~~~
"He didn't finish explaining the prophecy" Clark was the first one to speak after Mr. Wayne had left.
"No he didn't, but then again men with prophecies very rarely explain themselves enough" Buffy added
"What happens if we don't join H.I.?" Harry casually asked Buffy and Clark.
Ignoring Harry's question Buffy headed for the door "I'm off to see what this penthouse thing is all about, you two can join me if you want." With that she left followed silently by Harry and Clark.
~~~~~~~~~
The three found the penthouse without too much trouble. There was even a button in the elevator labeled penthouse for anyone who wasn't smart enough to realize that it meant the apartment on the top floor. They toured the place, checking out the bedrooms, choosing which ones they wanted. Grabbing something to eat from the refrigerator. Then going to bed. The strange thing was, they never spoke to each other. Surrounded in their own thoughts not a word was spoken between the three.
~~~~~~~~~
Buffy lay awake in her room staring at the ceiling and intermittently daring glances at the two folders that lay unopened on the dresser. When she'd headed to Chicago, this was what she'd wanted. A new adventure. But now that she was here and a new adventure, a new challenge was just a page turn away; she was scared to death. Thinking about she decided that if he'd never mentioned the prophecy she might have joined up immediately. But something about the idea of destiny lay heavy in her gut. She was tired of doing things because she had too, she wanted something different. She wanted choose-your-own-adventure kind of adventure. Buffy smiled inwardly as she thought of the books that she'd loved in childhood with the same name. And books made her again think of the folders. She knew that the minute she opened them and read she'd be hooked. That internal need in her to help would be awakened and she'd never be able to go back. She also realized that if she didn't open them she could keep running, pretend that this wasn't real and that they didn't need her. After all she'd never seen any proof.
"dammit! It's right there!" She spoke aloud to herself sitting up in bed and heading over to the folders opening the first one gently.
Essence filtered….false calling…powers that be…weak force…altered destinyBig words, complicated sentences. But Buffy knew what they meant. She was the last real slayer and that meant…
"Ugh!" Buffy grunted in disgust as she slammed the papers on the dresser and left in search of some chocolate. Thinking "After all everything seems better when you're eating chocolate."
~~~~~~~~
Harry read over the folder he'd been given. It contained a few sheets of paper and another business card. However the information in the papers wasn't too much more than what Mr. Wayne had told them. A company designed to bring together heroes to work towards a common goal in groups of two, three and four. At any given time there were four or five groups of heroes ranking in different levels of effectiveness and ability. They also had a strong network of individuals throughout the world that reported and researched abnormal activity and studied approaching signs of an apocalypse. As far as Harry could see they ran on a sort of "finger in every pie" approach. "Not a bad way of doing it" he thought to himself. Also realizing that there must a lot more apocalypses than he'd ever imagined. It did note in the paper though that they did other sorts of hero work. The damsels in distress kind of stuff he'd learned about in history of magic. "Well" he thought "It's not like I have anything else going for me and this may be as close to being a Auror I'll ever get." With that decision made, a grumbling in his stomach reminded him that he hadn't eaten nearly enough before he'd headed to bed.
~~~~~~~~~
Buffy sat at the kitchen table a glass of milk and a plate of double chocolate cookies that she'd found in the cupboard in front of her. She'd been going over what she was going to do, even though deep down she'd already made the decision. She'd realized as she popped the last of her third cookie in her mouth that the decision had been made internally the moment Mr. Wayne had left the room and she hadn't high-tailed it out of there. She was just fooling herself pretending like she had a choice. She was just going to put the rest of the cookies back and head to bed when Harry entered the room greeting her with a wave as started searching through the cupboards.
"Harry?" Buffy
"Yes"
"Earlier you asked what would happen if we didn't join H.I."
"I did."
"Well I'll tell you what would happen. The end of the world. The thing is, when it comes to prophecies. They're pretty specific, if this one needs the three of us and we don't work together then…" she paused for a moment "Well whatever happens then I don't want to think about. I've been close to hell on earth and it's not a pretty thing" She grimaced inwardly with a vision of Angel being pulled into Hell.
While Buffy had been speaking Clark had walked quietly into the kitchen. They didn't notice him until he spoke "That's what I was thinking. They don't call it a prophecy because it's a suggestion. What I mean is destiny is destiny, right?"
"And if this is ours?" Harry added
"Why should we deny it?" Clark finished
Buffy looked at the two men; well they were almost men at least. Their faces were young but their eyes were old. Finally she spoke
"Destiny is a funny thing, I mean if we wanted to we could walk out of here right now and ignore this incredibly important prophecy. Then we could be all "screw destiny", and pretend like we have some control over it. But in all actuality, not a one of us is going to turn down Mr. Wayne, so maybe we don't have control over it. Maybe there's no free will. Maybe all we are our puppets of some higher being. Being played with until we break."
"Are you always this negative?" Clark looked down at her with an eyebrow raised.
"I'm not trying to be negative, I'm just trying to work out how little control or how much control we really have. I've spent the last two years being the universe's chew toy and maybe I'm tired of hearing "it's your destiny""
"Well, does that change anything?" Harry looked at her, daring her to say what was on the tip of her tongue. However, Buffy looked forlornly at the table grabbing another cookie and stuffing it in her mouth as she mumbled. "No"
Clark watched her eating, she was tiny and she'd already polished off a huge cookie in two bites, and that brought another thought to the front of his mind. Speaking it out loud he asked.
"What makes you two heroes? You asked me earlier but you never offered any answers in return"
"We saved the world" Harry hedged around the question.
"We covered that already, what I mean is what's special about you? Why did you save the world and not someone else?"
This time Buffy spoke "Like I said earlier I'm the slayer. The slayer is one girl in all the world destined to fight the forces of darkness. There's this whole spiel that goes with it, but it's boring and it breaks down into this. I'm super strong I have extra-sensitive senses and I'm quick. All these powers are pre-ordained to help me fight evil. Although to be honest no one has ever explained to me why."
"Oh" Clark looked at her in awe "I suppose all the meteor rock freak teens in my town are nothing compared to the force of darkness"
"Oh I don't know, sometimes the force of darkness is nothing more than a Billy Idol wannabe, and there's nothing more pathetic than that." Buffy spoke with half a grin and paused before asking "But what's a meteor rock freak?"
Clark thought about not telling them the truth; but decided they'd learn soon enough anyway. And taking a deep breath he spoke quickly "Theyarepeoplewhowereinfectedbythemeteorrocksthatcamedownfromspacethedaymyspaceshiplandedonearth"
"Spaceship?" Harry joined the conversation
Clark grimaced and then spoke again "I'm from another planet"